View full sizeMike Greenlar / The Post StandardTara Rush of Syracuse sits outside the community tent at Preservation Park along South Salina Street Wednesday. She calls herself a part-timer who joined the movement in November.

Update: Fire inspectors toured the Occupy Syracuse camp at 7 and 9 p.m. today but left without taking action.

"We gave the fire inspectors a tour of the tents and they didn't find anything, because we've been propane-free for a couple of days," said Jon Grey of Occupy Syracuse. "I would be surprised if (Mayor) Stephanie Miner evicted us for a propane violation after we passed inspection."

Earlier:

Syracuse, NY – Occupy Syracuse members had ample warning that they couldn’t run heaters or electricity in their tents and now have to face the consequences, Mayor Stephanie Miner said.

But when the consequences would be felt remained unclear this evening.

Miner, concerned over evidence that Occupy Syracuse might be using propane-burning devices to heat the protest group’s encampment, on Tuesday gave members 24 hours to remove their tents and gear from Perseverance Park. She personally delivered that notice about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

That the encampment remained up as of 3 a.m. today, 19 hours after the implied deadline, does not mean anything had changed, Miner said during a midafternoon telephone interview.

“We never said we were going to evict them at 8:01,” Miner said. “We said they had 24 hours to remove their materials.”

The mayor declined to discuss what the city’s next step would be or when it would come.

Occupy Syracuse is welcome to keep using the park to express its opposition to greed and corporate influence over politics, she said. But it no longer has permission, either unspoken or explicit, to maintain physical structures at the park or stay overnight, she said.

Occupy Syracuse Ordered to Vacate Its Encampment, Jan. 17.Jon Grey, of Syracuse, an Occupy Syracuse participant who has lived at the encampment for 105 days, talked on Tuesday about Mayor Stephanie Miner's order that their camp at Perseverance Park, at One Lincoln Center at South Salina Street, be vacated by this morning.

“The use of propane heaters and open flames in tents is a public safety threat to the people who were there as well as others who may have been passing by or anybody else. As I shared with them, they have become a danger to themselves and to others,” Miner said.

While she had in previous interviews expressed sympathy for Occupy Syracuse’s ideals, her decision to order the group out of Perseverance Park was not a betrayal, she said.

“I would rather be dealing with angry protesters than dealing with dead people and dealing with the aftermath of flagrant violations of the fire code,” Miner said. “The risks are too high and that's why it's become a public safety issue."

She told Occupy representatives during a Nov. 18 meeting that they could not have heat or electricity in their tents, a point repeated during inspections this month, she said.

“And now we’re saying, ‘It’s done,’” Miner said. “They have to be accountable for their failure to adhere to the restrictions that gave them the privilege of having tents there.”

Lindsay McCluskey, speaking later for Miner, said the mayor had no plans to meet with Occupy Syracuse members on the issue.

Representatives of the group trekked twice to City Hall Wednesday morning to seek such a meeting. Several said they had received mixed signals over the past week and a half from fire officials about what was allowed, and they were prevented by Monday’s holiday from getting a permit to use propane outside their tents. They hoped to resolve Miner’s concerns and do what was needed to maintain the Perseverance Park compound.

“There was no confusion. This is, I think, after-the-fact rationalization,” Miner said.

The “gentle warning” given during the Nov. 18 meeting should have been bolstered after fire officials, inspecting on Jan. 8 and 9, found a propane cylinder and heater and told campers to remove them, she said. She ordered frequent spot checks. She said they began Sunday; Occupy Syracuse members said they started on Friday.

During inspections Sunday and Monday, the Fire Department confiscated a propane cylinder; a small camp stove; multiple propane tanks; a 30,000 BTU heater and another heater, Miner said.

Occupy members say they worked to have donors pick up propane burners and tanks. Sometimes fire officials let empty tanks stay, other times ordered them to be removed, members said.

Members said they also were surprised that Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Cavuto returned a call to Occupier Ryan O’Hara at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday to discuss heating alternatives, only to have Miner come to the camp 15 minutes later to order the campers to leave.

Miner said she wasn’t aware of that conversation, but said it could have been part of the role Cavuto had assumed in inspecting the camp.

The mayor said the order to remove the camp did not result from a Freedom of Information request filed Jan. 3 by Onondaga County Republican Chairman Thomas Dadey. He asked city officials to supply permits and permit requests since July for tents, parades and public assemblies at Perseverance Park, according to a copy of the request that Dadey gave to The Post-Standard.

She said did not know Dadey had made such a request until McCluskey told her Tuesday that a reporter had asked about it.

“Unless Tom Dadey put propane tanks in there and called 911, this had nothing to do with him,” Miner said.